Having once been called the tech Hemingway of Paris, named one of the top 100 women in technology in Europe in 2012, short-listed for best tech journalist by the TechCrunch Europas, I like to fix problems with my own special brand of strategy, storytelling and writing. As a former assistant press secretary to a US Senator, DOE spokesperson, frequent speaker and host of a few of Europe's leading tech and mobile conferences, I've been on all sides of story telling, comms in all its forms. Georgia girl living in London with my beagle Henry. Come follow me on Twitter @jennalee or Google + under Jennifer Kite-Powell.

CES 2014: 3D Cameras, Practical Robots and Wearable Tech

The pace at which we are accelerating technology from entertainment devices into objects and connected devices that we can use in our every day lives or helps us live better, is in high gear.

Less than a year ago, PrimeSense, acquired by Apple in November 2013, was at CES with some budding young companies that were convinced we were at the beginning of a growth market with sensors in hardware. One year later one of those companies, Matterport, has now become the first company to make a 3D camera and bring it to market.

The Matterport 3D Camera showing the underlying mesh that is captured

The Matterport 3D camera is controlled using an iPad app and uses a melange of 2D and 3D sensors to capture the appearance and dimensions of a space. It calculates interior dimensions, captures objects, colors and textures. And it works just as well if the room is empty, under construction or cluttered with furniture or machinery. It’s extra advantage, the cloud, because the images are generated in the cloud, it makes it easier to share with other people or colleagues.

The Matterport 3D Camera

Matterport, along with a growing and diverse list of companies like Qualcomm’s Augmented Reality (AR) platform, Vuforia and Spain’s leading AR company, Catchoom, want to create a stronger bridge between the physical and digital world — an actionable, immersive, data-rich 3D environment and experience that can be applied to a variety of industries, not just games and entertainment.

Matterport says anyone can use the camera, but they will first focus on markets that can use the technology right away and have it help them do their jobs better – construction, home improvement and insurance are the first target markets, other applications could be tourist agencies, criminal and forensic scientists and retailers.

A new French robotics company debuted its entertainment robot, Keecker which is really a connected robotic device — meaning it unifies all the entertainment systems in your house – command central so to speak, the Roomba for entertainment. The robot is equipped with video projection and a powerful 360° audio & video capture system that lets you project movies, listen to music, browse the web, make video calls and play games, but not clean floors.

The company claims Keecker can also be used to check home analytics (temperature, humidity, sound level, light level, CO2 level) or for security purposes, so you can monitor your home remotely from the road. Through apps, you could receive alerts based on events you select, like turn on the lights in the evening.

But features distract from the primary focus of the robot and also puts the company in the competitive market as their fellow French connected device makers – Netamo and Withings (See Forbes CES 2013 feature) which also make devices that monitor your home’s environment.

The company did not disclose its funding.

Shifting back to the company that pioneered in home robots, iRobot continues to drive its practical robot agenda into the market place. The company believes that robots are going to challenge traditional cleaning methods in 2014 and they are re inventing its products from the inside out. At CES, iRobot debuted a new platform for wet floor cleaning called the Scooba 450 Floor Scrubbing Robot. Just because it cleans the floors doesn’t make it any less robotically advanced.

The new iRobot Scooba® 450 floor scrubbing robot sweeps and pre-soaks, scrubs and squeegees hard floors, washing away up to 99.3% of bacteria

The Scooba 450 usess some seriously advanced robotic technologies including increased intelligence in terms of navigation and behavior for more efficient cleaning. So, the Scooba 450 is thinking, intelligently navigating itself and deep cleaning. More and more like the Jetson’s Rosie the Robot without the back talk.

The Scooba also happens to be the only hard floor scrubbing robot on the market.

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